WISE Women’s Clean Cookstoves Project

In 2015, WEA launched a partnership with Women’s Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE) to hold capacity-building trainings for women leaders from Kaduna State in Nigeria to promote and sell clean cookstoves. Through trainings that include clean cookstove business training, leadership and advocacy skill development, and financing for clean cookstove purchasing, WEA and WISE are now working intensively to improve the health and safety of women, reduce deforestation, and increase household savings.

Goal: Improve the health and safety of women, reduce deforestation and increase household savings in Kaduna State through training women entrepreneurs to build and scale clean cookstove businesses, train their families and communities to adopt cookstoves, and form networks to advocate for clean energy at the local and national levels in a region severely impacted by climate change, deforestation, and poverty, where high percentages of women are sick and die from smoke inhalation from traditional open stoves.

Projected Impact: 30 women launch clean cookstove enterprises, reaching 13,000 people in Kaduna, Nigeria with training and the opportunity to purchase clean cookstoves and thus breathe healthier air, reduce deforestation, increase household savings (because families will no longer spend as much money on firewood for cooking), improve health and safety, and transform their sense of personal and communal empowerment.

Launch date: Q2, 2016

Meet the Women Leaders

Olanike Olugboji is a WEA founding mother, who participated in WEA's first Women and Water Training in Kenya. She then returned to Nigeria and launched WISE, which today has trained over 3,000 women in clean energy, safe water technologies, and entrepreneurship.

Regina Poto, financial advisor for the WISE Clean Cookstoves Training initiative, has a long tenure in the banking sector and has brought a wealth of knowledge in business plans, profitability, marketing, scalability and long-term sustainability.

At a Glance

98,000 Nigerians die annually as a result of smoke inhaled while cooking with firewood.*

72% of Nigerians depend solely on fuelwood for cooking. After malaria and HIV/AIDS, smoke is the biggest killer of mostly women and children.In addition to this health problem, traditional biomass stoves burn 90% more wood than is necessary. This has cost poor families and institutions money that could be spent on education, health, and nutrition.*

Nigeria’s fuel wood consumption is about 80 million cubic meters, making biomass fuel the most common source of household energy in Nigeria.*

“As a young child, barefoot women and girls carrying heavy containers of water on their heads, walking long distances under the searing sun were a common sight. The reality of this stayed with me, and I knew I would do something about it someday.”

— OLANIKE OLUGBOJI, WEA FOUNDING MOTHER, PROJECT LEADER

The Need

The use of open fires and traditional cookstoves is a primary global health and environmental problem, killing over 4 million people every year and sickening millions more. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, more than 90% of the rural population relies on fuelwood and charcoal.

The health and economic burdens of dirty cookstoves disproportionately affect women and girls, who inhale the daily equivalent of up to 20 packs of cigarettes cooking 3 meals per day and spend up to 4 hours per day (or 60 days per year) collecting firewood; this means less time to attend school or work. Traditional cooking is also expensive, costing poor families money that could be better spent on education, health, and nutrition.

In Nigeria alone:

72% of Nigeriansdepend solely on fuelwood for cooking.

Approximately 95,000 people die annually from inhaling smoke emanating from cooking with wood. *

Lower respiratory infections were the leading cause of death, killing 290,200 people in 2012. *

Nigeria has the largest desertification rates in the world with loss of 55.7% of its primary forests.

The annual rate of deforestation in Nigeria is approximately 3.5% — between 350,000 and 400,00 hectares of land annually. *

Most people are not aware of the grave health and environmental risks associated with traditional open fire cooking, or cannot afford cleaner options.

The Project

WEA and WISE are partnering on the Women’s Clean Cookstoves Project to directly equip 30 women entrepreneurs with the training, seed grants, and leadership networks to become profitable entrepreneurs and clean energy leaders in their communities. These 30 women will go on to scale clean cookstove sales and spawn complementary clean energy enterprises and advocacy to benefit tens of thousands more Nigerians. As a result, these families will have the chance to breathe healthier air, reduce deforestation, increase household savings, improve health and safety, and transform their sense of personal and community empowerment. Our team aims to achieve the following:

Clean cookstove businesses.30 women leaders will launch and scale cookstove enterprises in teams of 2 with the support of a two-part intensive training, seed grant funding and peer support. Trainings cover financial management strategies, profit generation, clean cookstove technologies, leadership and entrepreneurship. The women will be equipped to market stoves with strategic messaging and train their communities on the benefits and operation of the new clean stoves, reaching 13,000 people in Kaduna state within one year.

Leadership, advocacy, and intergenerational knowledge. In order for women and their families to adopt clean cookstoves, it is critical that they understand the life-threatening importance of replacing traditional cookstoves. Through participation in community trainings, public demonstrations, networking events, and advocacy campaigns, women across generations will increase their capacity and confidence to be social, ecological, and economic leaders in their families and communities for adoption of clean, safe cookstoves.

Financing for cookstove purchasing.At an average price tag of approximately $15 per clean cookstove, even “affordable” clean cookstoves can be cost-prohibitive for low-income families in Nigeria. With lower firewood costs, these new stoves are expected to pay for themselves within 2-3 months of daily use.